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Frequently Asked Questions about Solitary
Bees |
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Mining Bees and children I have mining bees in my lawn
and I have small children who may get stung. Should I be concerned? |
In most cases there should be no real cause
for concern. Mining bee stings are feeble, and it is not easy to make mining
bees sting. However, if your child is anaphylactic, then it's probably wise
to keep them away from nesting areas. Mining bees rarely nest for more than
4 to
6 weeks. |
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Controlling Mining Bees
Question
asked
7 April 2005:
I have what would seem to be a very active
colony of mining bees in both my front and rear garden. Although I believe
they are harmless and do not sting, when I cut the grass I will probably end
up destroying one or two mounds, which I presume will not get a reaction from
the bees. However there are more and more mounds appearing every day, can I
get rid of them before they take over the whole garden. |
First the bad news: No it's not really
possible to get rid of the bees without applying insecticide, which would
also kill all the invertebrates that your lawn needs to keep it healthy
- particularly animals like earthworms.
Now the good news:
Generally mining bees will only be active for a maximum of around six
weeks. You are probably experiencing peak activity round about now.
Gradually the activity will subside and by the end of May there should be
very few bees about. It's not much of a problem for the bees if you
destroy the mounds of soil, as these are just the soil excavated by the
bees to make their underground cells. Destroying the
mounds will not get a reaction from the bees, so no worries there. Finally
the mounds and the mining activity of the bees will not damage your lawn
and on the plus side, if you do have lots of bees in your lawn,
then they might even help to aerate the lawn for you!
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Encouraging Mining Bees
Question
asked April 2006:
We have had Mining Bees living and increasing in
number in our lawn in one particular area of our garden over the past 3
years. They live by 2 small apple trees with a very mossy area of lawn.
As we enjoy seeing them every spring, we do not wish to loose them, but my
husband is quite keen to clear the moss. Will this do any harm to their
habitat? And how could we provide man-made homes for these particular bees
too? |
If you leave clearing the moss from your lawn until after the
mining bee activity has ceased, about late May in most areas, it should be
fine to clear the moss. The bees nest tunnels go quite deep, so as long as
you only disturb near the surface, this should not harm the mining bee
nests. As for making places for mining bees to nest
in, the easiest thing you can do is to make patches of bare or sparsely
vegetated ground, especially where you have friable or sandy soil. South
facing banks are ideal. Most bare areas will gradually cover over with
vegetation, so it is useful to make new bare patches, next to the older
patches every two or three years - a sort of patch rotation system. A mossy
lawn is good too! Also a closely mown lawn seems to work well, but is not
essential, as long as there are patches of shorter or sparsely vegetated
lawn, this will often attract mining bees |
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